Star One: Neutron Star

by Raymond L. Weil

  Commander Erin was 32, and this was his 42nd shuttle flight. He had been flying the shuttles between Earth and Star One for over two years, mixed in with an occasional side trip to the Moon. Erin was a graduate of the Air Force Academy. He had been chosen for the astronaut-training program due to his high-test scores and nerve steady ability to handle himself in difficult situations.

  He had also seen limited combat experience in the Antarctic police action of 2037 when a Third World country had tried to seize the recently discovered rich mineral and oil deposits under the ice and snow. It had been a brief, bloody conflict in which he had distinguished himself as a pilot. He had flown a high tech stealth attack fighter, quickly demonstrating his prowess in combat with three confirmed kills.

  “How are your wife and kids adjusting to family life up on the station?” Erin asked with a broad smile, glancing over at John Gray.

  Erin knew that the Gray’s two kids had recently taken up permanent residence on Star One. His own eyes began to skim automatically over the myriads of controls, LED readouts, and computer screens, searching for any potential problems. Gray’s wife Julie had taken over as the head horticulturist on the station several months back after being heavily recruited by the station’s Commander Steve Larson. She was working very hard setting up Star One’s advanced ecological habitats. The sciences for the future space habitats were already being practiced and perfected on the space station.

  “She absolutely loves the challenge,” Gray responded, his eyes never leaving the controls, as he flipped several switches indicated on the checklist he was holding loosely in his left hand.

  Several computer screens flickered to life, and data began streaming across the screens under Gray’s watchful eyes. He had gone through this checklist so often he could probably do it in his sleep.

  “Julie always wanted to work on Star One. Some of her ideas on space farming and using hydroponics to make the station self-sufficient in food and oxygen are certainly working out,” replied John, knowing his wife was extremely happy with her current job.

  “Julie is doing a fabulous job on the station so far, John,” agreed Erin with a nod. Erin spoke to her often and knew that she truly loved what she was doing. “Someday, when we begin building the new space habitats, her work will be what helped to make them possible.”

  “From what she has told me, they have tripled the station’s food production in the past two months and have almost reached total recycling of the station’s water and oxygen supplies,” continued John, feeling proud of his wife’s accomplishments. He had never seen Julie so happy and content in her work as she was now. For Julie, coming up to Star One was a dream come true. It was even better now that the kids had come up to the station.

  “That explains all the fresh vegetables being served in the cafeterias recently,” commented Erin, nodding his approval. He genuinely enjoyed eating all the fresh vegetables that had suddenly been added to the station’s menus. “It’s a lot cheaper to grow food on the station than to have it shipped up from Earth.”

  “They’re doing everything they can to help cut the operating costs of the station,” John said, agreeing with Erin about those costs. “Julie plans to give me a complete tour of the entire agricultural section this time up. The ecological habitats have been strictly off limits to everyone except Julie’s group recently while the plants and animals were being firmly established. They didn’t want to risk anything upsetting the fragile ecological balance they’ve been working so hard to set up.”

  “Can’t say that I blame her,” replied Erin, knowing that Julie had worked extremely hard getting the ecological habitats up and running in such a short time. She and her team had done a remarkable job.

  Gray reached above his head checking a set of instruments that recorded in flight telemetry. “Of course the kids absolutely love the whole thing. Julie and I are both extremely pleased at how well they have adjusted to living on the station. They look at it as if it’s a great big adventure. I promised them a trip to the zero gravity gym later this week if they behave.”

  “The zero gravity gym,” Erin responded, almost laughing and imagining what that would be like. “How did they ever talk you into that? I can’t imagine Julie being persuaded into it so easily.” Erin was well aware of how Julie got sick in zero gravity. She preferred to stay in the areas of the station that maintained an Earth normal environment.

  “Julie will stay in the observation lounge where she can watch everything,” conceded Gray, knowing how his wife despised zero gravity. She had been sick for days after her initial flight up to the station. “Only the kids and I will be in the gym.”

  Erin nodded, knowing that John’s family life was extremely important to him and that he was exceptionally proud of Julie’s many accomplishments. Erin had been close friends with Julie and John for several years now. Steve Larson, Star One's ever watchful commander, was his closest friend, and the four of them could be seen together quite often on the station. The space program, with Steve’s encouragement, had become an addiction for Erin, drawing him more and more out into space.

  Letting his eyes sweep over the crowded control panels and computer displays, he continued going through his own prelaunch checklist. Without thinking, he adjusted one of the harnesses across his chest, which had been feeling slightly uncomfortable. With luck, he would know in a few days if he had qualified to command the Jupiter Probe mission being put together at the Space Platform next to Star One.

  Deep space missions were rare and expensive, and to command one could be the highlight of his career. It would give him the opportunity to set foot on several of the larger moons of Jupiter. To be that close to the massive gas giant and to see the planet hanging in the sky above you dominating everything around it would be breathtaking. Concentrating on his checklist, Erin turned on his com system and contacted Mission Control to begin confirming final prelaunch activities.

  The next several hours passed rapidly, as Lieutenant Gray and Erin quickly ran through and completed the complicated prelaunch checks. Halfway through that period, the passengers came onboard and were strapped into their acceleration couches.

  -

  Jennifer Stone was a petite brunette on her first trip out into space. Her well-rounded figure was strapped securely down in the acceleration couch, with the harnesses crossing her ample breasts and feeling slightly uncomfortable. After a minor adjustment and wriggle, the harness was adjusted to fit much more comfortably.

  She waited tensely in her seat. Her hands clasped nervously together. She could feel herself shaking slightly and hoped anxiously that none of the other passengers noticed. Jennifer knew that shuttle launches had become quite routine, but she still felt uneasy and slightly frightened. This would be her first trip out into space, and for her this would be a totally new and frightening experience.

  There were five small cabins on the passenger level of the shuttle, each one capable of holding eight people comfortably. The acceleration couches could be reclined so the passengers could sleep if the trip was a long one, such as a trip up to Star One or to Tyco City on the Moon.

  There was always a full load of passengers and cargo on every trip up. No space was ever wasted. On the front wall of each cabin, a large, high definition viewscreen was visible. It was presently focused on the bustling activity around the shuttle and the cape. There were two rows of bulky acceleration couches, with two on each side. There were overhead storage compartments similar to a modern passenger plane for passengers to store a few items that might be needed on the trip.

  The main difference was the large pressure hatch, which was a stark reminder that this was not an airplane. At the entrance to each cabin, a glaringly white pressure hatch was held securely open, which would only be slammed shut if one of the cabins suddenly lost air pressure.

  Eyeing the pressure hatch nervously, Jennifer’s heart fluttered briefly, as she wondered if she had made the right decision applying for the job as Star One’s head AI com
puter programmer. The job carried many responsibilities, and she would be working with a closely-knit group of people. To be able to work with the AI on Star One, and to be part of the cutting edge of innovation and discovery, could hold a lot of advantages and potential career opportunities for her. She reminded herself that Steve Larson, the station’s commander, had been the one who had contacted her and requested that she apply for the job. He had been very insistent and charming in encouraging her.

  She knew that some of the people on Star One had been there from day one and very seldom returned to Earth. It was rumored that Steve Larson hadn’t been down to Earth for years! Most of the crew had adapted to living in space, and the size of the station made a return to Earth unnecessary.

  New discoveries were becoming commonplace in Star One’s numerous labs. Many of the world's leading scientists and medical people lived and worked there. There was technology available on Star One that didn’t exist anywhere else. Rumors spoke of discoveries that would shake the very foundation of scientific belief.

  Leaning her head back lightly on the softly cushioned headrest, Jennifer let her eyes wander around the small brightly lit cabin. The cabin’s pastel interior and the carpeting on the floor made it hard to believe that she was in a space shuttle.

  Little did she know that the colors and the carpeting had been chosen specifically to help encourage people to relax. The other seven seats in her compartment were occupied by people either going up on business or normal crew rotation.

  Jennifer was glad that the cape medical staff had given her an anti-nausea pill to help counter the affects of takeoff and weightlessness. She had been worried about how being weightless might affect her stomach. Losing her light breakfast was not her idea of how to impress people. Some of them had spent a considerable portion of their life in space. A shuttle launch to them was probably not a big deal.

  She knew that Star One had artificial gravity, which was generated by the plentiful power furnished by its fusion reactor. The electrical energy was passed through special insulated plates in the floor of the station, which created Earth normal gravity throughout the massive artificial structure. Jennifer didn’t understand the science or technology behind artificial gravity; she was just extremely thankful that it existed.

  Trying to relax, Jennifer closed her eyes and tried to imagine what her life on Star One would be like. A tingle of excitement ran up and down her spine as she considered the thrilling possibilities. She let her imagination run wild, visualizing new adventures and discoveries. She had dealt with computers almost all of her young life, and the thought of working with Star One’s AI, the most advanced one known, thrilled and excited her. She had worked with other AIs on Earth and even helped design some of their programs, but none compared to the one she had heard about on the space station.

  From her briefings, she knew that the AI was supposedly sentient and capable of independent thoughts and actions. She had pondered this startling information. The AIs she was familiar with on Earth had only rudimentary sentience, if it could even be called that. She questioned the truth regarding what she had been told about the station’s AI. It seemed too fantastic to believe. This would be a quantum leap in AI development, if it were true. She didn’t see how that could be possible.

  If it was true, than this AI might qualify as an actual life form, which brought up another series of intriguing questions. Just what rights did an actual artificial intelligence have? In order to find out, all she had to do was survive the launch and the trip to the space station. She took a deep breath and tried to relax.

  -

  On the Flight Deck, Commander Erin and Lieutenant Gray had finished their preflight checks and confirmed with Mission Control that everything was green for launch. They had a few short minutes to rest as launch time neared.

  Turning his head, Erin checked the viewscreens, which showed the passenger cabins. They were located on the pilot’s side of the Flight Deck. There were two mission specialists who doubled as flight attendants and were responsible for the passenger’s wellbeing.

  They were also highly trained technicians, capable of fixing almost any problem that might arise with the shuttle during the flight. Currently they were on the lower deck making sure everything was stowed away properly. The two would check the passengers one more time on their way back up to the Flight Deck just before launch.

  Turning on the shuttle’s intercom system, Erin made a short announcement. “This is Flight Commander Tyler Erin. We are at t-minus ten minutes to launch. As per the prelaunch briefing, the trip to Star One will take 22 hours. It should be a routine flight, one I’ve made numerous times. For those of you who have never been on a shuttle before, there is a large viewscreen located in the front of each cabin. It will be set to view the Earth once we enter our planned flight path. If you have any problems, please press the flight attendant button on your armrest, and one of them will be with you shortly. Remember, absolutely no one can move about the cabins while the engines are on. If you have a problem, we will get to you as soon as the engines are powered down. Thank you,” Erin completed in an almost monotone voice. He had lost count of the number of times he had made that short speech.

  Lieutenant Gray smiled knowingly at Erin once the speech was completed. He glanced at the passenger cabin viewscreens behind him and grinned. Even though he was happily married, he still liked to check out the women passengers on every trip. His wife always said he could look but not touch. Good thing too, his wife’s main assistant, Kathleen Preen, was going back up on this trip after collecting some botanical specimens for Julie.

  Kathleen had a habit of dressing very provocatively when she was off duty. John didn’t know how many times he had been left tongue tied and embarrassed after seeing Kathleen’s scantily clad form in some new outfit she was flaunting. She seemed to take particular pleasure in putting him in awkward and embarrassing positions. John suspected that his wife Julie found Kathleen’s antics highly amusing.

  “Check out that cute brunette in cabin two, Commander. The one with her eyes closed sitting next to Kathleen. I bet she wouldn’t mind a personal tour of the station,” John teased with a broad smile, pointing at one of the screens behind them. John and his wife Julie were always trying to set Tyler up with dates.

  From what John could see, she had an exceptional figure. She was reclining back in her acceleration couch with her eyes closed and a slight hint of a troubled smile on her unblemished face. John suspected that this was her first trip up into space.

  “That’s Jennifer Stone,” replied Erin, recalling what he knew about her. He had spoken with the young woman briefly earlier that morning when he had met the passengers going up on today’s shuttle flight.

  Steve had also mentioned Jennifer to him. She was the main reason for this trip being scheduled. The normal shuttle supply flight wasn’t due to launch for three more days. Erin had meant to talk some more with Jennifer before the flight, but he had missed the opportunity due to time constraints.

  “Commander Larson wants her up on the station as soon as possible to work with Teela,” commented Erin, looking inquisitively at the young woman on the screen.

  He knew that this was her first shuttle flight, and he could tell she was nervous. Fortunately, Kathleen was sitting next to her. Julie’s assistant could be counted on to look after Jennifer and keep her calm.

  “I think Julie mentioned her,” responded John, looking closely at the young woman on the screen.

  “She’s supposed to be a genius at computer programming, and Steve hopes she can straighten out our AI problems,” continued Erin, glancing over at John. “Some of her papers on AI technology and development have captured the attention of the computer world. I’ve read several of them. She is a remarkably sharp and intelligent young woman.”

  Erin was interrupted by Mission Control confirming that they were one minute from launch and counting. The two mission specialists had returned a few minutes earlier to their acceleration c
ouches at the rear of the Flight Deck and strapped themselves in. They were checking their consoles and keeping a watchful eye on the passengers via the viewscreens.

  Erin and Gray both rechecked their safety harnesses, doing a quick check of the Flight Deck and systems before settling their acceleration couches back into their reclined launch position. It was very quiet in the shuttle. All that could be heard was the quiet hum of electrical equipment.

  “Time to light the fire and kick our butts up into space,” John quipped with a grin as the counter rapidly ran down. John loved the launches. The thrill and excitement as the shuttle’s engines ignited and the boosters fired up was remarkable. The adrenaline rush associated with a launch was fantastic!

  The last few seconds passed quickly. Alarms briefly sounded around the cape, indicating that a launch was imminent. Around the launch pad, all work came briefly to a sudden stop. An unearthly silence seemed to stretch out around the shuttle, spreading like an invisible blanket across the cape. The birds in the air fled toward the safety of the calm ocean waters, as if sensing that something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

  The massive protective tower, with its attached umbilical, pulled back suddenly from the shuttle. Like a parent letting its child stand alone for the first time, the shuttle stood ready to unleash its hidden power. Oxidizer in the form of white steam clouds escaped from the vents in the shuttle’s tank as the sun warmed the tank’s super cooled liquid fuel. At t-minus eight seconds, the shuttle’s main engines flared into life with a loud roar that could be heard dimly throughout the shuttle.

  For miles around the cape, everyone and everything paused briefly to ponder the noise, which signified another launch. Many went on about their work, and a few turned inquisitive heads toward the disturbance to watch. The passengers and crew instinctively braced themselves as they felt and heard the main engines erupt into roaring life.